From the Roman poet Juvenal’s observations about bread and circuses to Marie Antoinette’s proclamation, “let them eat cake!” the link between food and political stability is well established in pop culture. In academic and policy circles, however, it’s a source of considerable debate.

The largest outbreak of Ebola on record has sparked intense second-guessing of authorities around the world, and lack of trust in public institutions was a major factor in its spread through West Africa, wrote Laurie Mazur last month.

What if it’s not increased scarcity that’s most disruptive about climate change, but variability? Cullen Hendrix explains how new research on water conflict suggests that’s the case in last month’s most popular story.

It’s been 20 years since the Environmental Change and Security Program was founded to shed light on the new security issues of our times, so in honor of this anniversary, we’ve rounded up the 20 most popular stories of all time.

An estimated 1.8 billion people today are between the ages of 10 and 24 and 85 percent of them live in developing economies and/or fragile states. Such youthful age structures can lead to a number of challenges, including increased potential for instability, and countries with large numbers of young people must find ways to address their unique needs.

We started the last top 10 post tracking the dramatic battle over Iraq’s Mosul Dam and the most popular of August took a closer look. Cameron Harrington and I explain that this isn’t the first time water has played a major role in the fighting, while also exploring ways it could be a peacemaker.

As Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rebels were steadily pushing into Iraq last month, ultimately threatening the country’s largest dam, water conflict was a popular topic on the blog.